I don’t know about you, but the biggest thing I learned from last month’s guide on Hope is that we need faith to go along with it. We can hope that people will do the right thing and maintain social distancing, but it’s our Faith in God that will give us the comfort that we need to continue on in life without worry or panic over the things that we have no control over. Think about it, how many times have you said something like, “Boy, I sure hope that they have toilet paper in stock,” and then start to wonder what you’ll do if they don’t? It’s so easy to hope for things to go right, but until you have faith that God will always provide your needs, you’ll just keep hoping and hoping.

1 Peter 3:15 NIV says “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect”. I spent a lot of time on this verse because of its directive. Do you have an answer? How can you do that without turning people off and instead be encouraging and intriguing enough to make them want to have Christ in their lives, too? While your answer is probably different than mine, I believe the one thing that we all should have in common in our answer to that question is faith.

With the state that the world is in, it’s easier to imagine the worst happening, yet if your faith in God is strong, then the concept of the worst happening should not scare you as much as those whose faith isn’t as strong. I like to look at faith as the main ingredient in the recipe that makes up our confidence. You can be confident in your abilities, sure, but how confident are you in your life’s situation? If confidence is something you struggle with, then consider praying that God will strengthen your faith so that you can look at your life through His eyes and gain the confidence you need to live without worldly fear.

God loves you, will always provide for you, and will never put you through anything you can’t handle. If you have faith in these things, you’ll be able to live a much less stressful life!

Thank you for reading. If you’d like to share your answer to 1 Peter 3:15, please leave a comment. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Enjoy May’s guide!